 a very good evening aspirants it's really a pleasure to see you again welcome to the hinder news analysis by shankar eye's academy for the day 7th of august 2021 these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion and in these articles we have one editorial and the rest of the articles are discussed in the prelims perspective and since we are concerned about your time we are giving you the notes displayed below in a pdf format for which the links will be available in the description box below so without wasting much time let's get into the news discussion now look at this news article this article is regarding the development of urban forest parks in telangana now the news is that the chief secretary of the state has directed the forest officials to complete the development of all urban forest parks in telangana by march 2022 so in this context we are going to discuss in brief about the urban forest parks the concerned scheme and we are also going to see about Hyderabad which was recognized as a tree city of the world so come let us move into the discussion see the national forest policy of india envisages to have a minimum of at least 33 percent of the total geographical area under forest cover or under tree cover now this minimum 33 percent is fixed in order to maintain the environmental stability and also the ecological balance see this is because both environmental stability as well as ecological balance they play a very important role when it comes to the sustaining of life forms so when i say life forms i actually mean all the human animal and plants living in it so in this direction the telangana government has launched the telangana kuharita haram program see as of now the telangana government has got 24 percent of tree cover so under this program they envisage to increase the present 24 percent of the tree cover to at least 33 percent of total geographical area of the state so the thrust area to achieve the above goal are two-fold so one is through the initiatives in notified forest areas and the other is through the initiatives in areas that are outside the notified forest areas so first we will see about the initiatives in notified forest areas see the first objective that is the initiatives in notified forest areas is sought to be achieved by several distant aspects or elements and these aspects or elements includes initiatives like rejuvenating degraded forest then ensuring more effective protection of forest against illegal activities like that of smuggling or encroachment etc. and under this program a major boost is sought to be given to the social forestry in order to achieve the second objective so on that line in the areas outside the notified forest massive planting activities will be taken up and for carrying out these massive planting activities the priority areas chosen are roadside avenues river and kennel bank then barren hill tank bands etc. so as a part of the seventh phase of this Telangana-ku-Haritam-Hara the state has now set a target of planting 19.91 crore saplings and these 19.91 crore saplings will be planted across the state in the year 2021 to 2022 so this year the priority will be given to multi-level avenue plantations and these multi-level avenue plantations are planned along all national highways state highways and panchayat roads in the state and remember Miyawaki style of plantation is set to be taken up everywhere possible see this Miyawaki is a kind of planting technique that was pioneered by a Japanese botanist now this technique actually plays a very important role when it comes to the building of dens or native forest so the approach is supposed to ensure native forest and this method compresses layers of forest which includes shrubs trees canopies etc on small plots of land turning them into tiny forest and this method it involves planting two to four trees per square meter and one of the important or a unique aspect of this Miyawaki technique is that the forest developed under this technique usually grows in two to three years and after which they are self-sustaining in the sense they become maintenance free after the first three years and some of the benefits associated with the Miyawaki technique includes lowering temperature, nutritious soil and also increased support to wildlife now coming back know that the forest blocks both in and around the cities are developed into urban forest parks under the flagship program now these urban forest parks are helpful in providing the wholesome healthy living environment and in addition to that they also contribute to the growth of smart clean green sustainable as well as healthy cities so therefore the main focus here is given to develop all the forest blocks both in and around Hyderabad into urban forest parks see recently if you remember Hyderabad has become the only city in India to be recognized as a tree city of the world I will repeat Hyderabad has become the only city in India to be recognized as a tree city of the world and this particular recognition is given to Hyderabad by the Harbor Day Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization know that the tree cities of the world program they recognize cities and towns that are committed in ensuring that the urban forest and trees are properly maintained and sustainably managed so in order to be recognized as a tree city a particular community must meet a set of five core standards that actually illustrates a commitment to the caring of its trees and forest and the set of these five core standards is given below for your reference so aspirants can go through it so with this we have come to the end of this news discussion now let us move on to the next news article now we have taken this news article for a discussion the news article is about the recent Supreme Court judgment regarding the pardoning powers of governor so in this context we are going to have a brief comprehensive analysis on the governor and his pardoning powers so first let us understand what are these powers and then we will move on to the supreme court's verdict the syllabus covered by this article is given below for your reference first understand that governor is a state executive and being a part of the state legislature the governor is the chief executive head of the state but in spite of being the chief executive head of the state like the president the governor is the nominal executive head or the constitutional head now the next thing that you should know about a governor is that the governor possesses different powers like that of the president and these powers includes the executive powers the legislative the financial powers and also judicial powers and functions so our focus today is going to be on the judicial powers this is because the judicial powers also includes the pardoning powers of the governor which is discussed in today's news article see the pardoning powers of the governor includes the powers to grant pardons, reprieves, respites and remissions of punishment and in addition to this the governor can also suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person who is convicted of any offence against a state law remember that these powers are provided to the governor by the constitution under article 161 I will repeat it is article 161 which provides the governor the pardoning powers the meaning of these terms is given below but in today's discussion we are mainly going to focus on the powers of pardon remission and commutation see the pardon refers to the process of removing both the conviction and the sentence of the convicted individual in the sense the moment a person is pardoned it means that he or she can walk free now this is because the pardon will absolve all the sentences punishments and the disqualifications that are connected to the convicted now then comes remission remission refers to the process of reducing the period of sentence without changing its character now say for example a person is punished with a rigorous imprisonment of five years now using this remission power the governor can actually reduce this rigorous imprisonment of five years to a rigorous imprisonment of just two years now here the rigorous imprisonment is the nature of the sentence now as we saw earlier remission refers to only reducing the period of the sentence so the rigorous remission cannot be changed and only the period of the sentence is reduced that is from five years it can be reduced to two years now finally comes the commutation see commutation refers to the substitution of one form of punishment for a lighter form of punishment and the best example for this is the commutation of a death sentence into a life imprisonment wherein the person will be spending the rest of his or her life in prison now note that as per article 72 the president has also got similar powers but here it is important for you to remember that the president has got more pardoning powers than that of the governor now this is because a governor cannot pardon a death sentence i'll repeat a governor cannot pardon a death sentence whereas a president can so this is one of the major difference between the pardoning powers of the governor and the president but however the governor can suspend remit or commute a death sentence now regarding remission and commutation you should know that the code of criminal procedure provides for these powers under the sections of 432 433 and 433 a and the power is given to the appropriate government now additionally the code of criminal procedure it restricts the remission and commutation in certain cases and this is mentioned in section 433 a of the code of criminal procedure now the restriction now here the said restriction is applicable in two conditions the first condition is when the punishment of life imprisonment is imposed on a person even when death penalty as a punishment is available for the same offence now the second condition is when the death sentence is imposed on a person but this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment so it is in these two cases such person shall not be released from prison unless he had served at least 14 years of imprisonment so this is the restriction now the news is that supreme court has interpreted this restriction in the case law of the state of hariyana and others versus rajkumar now mainly in this particular case law the court is dealt with premature release in case of life imprisonment that is release before serving 14 years of imprisonment that is the restriction which we saw earlier see the supreme court has held that remission or commutation under sections of the code of criminal procedure is applicable for a state government and see in the case law the supreme court held that the powers of remission or commutation under the sections of the code of criminal procedure is applicable for a state government and this also includes the application of restrictions and when you take the governor the pardoning powers of the governor are granted to him by the constitution so therefore the governor's power to commute a sentence or to pardon a sentence is independent of any such restriction or limitation so here we should remember that the power under article 161 of the constitution can be exercised by the state governments and not by the governor on his or her own now this is because the advice of the appropriate government binds the head of the state that is the governor so that means supreme court held that the power conferred on the governor which is exercised on the aid and advice of the state government is without any restriction of the actual period of imprisonment that is undergone by the prisoner so therefore the 14 years restriction criteria will not apply if the governor wants to commute or pardon a sentence and the supreme court held that this power of the governor is an exercise of the power of the sovereign even though the governor is bound to act on the aid and advice of the state government now here you should understand the nuances see if the governor wants to prematurely release then he or she has got the power to do so under article 161 and also the code of criminal procedure restrictions won't apply in that case but if the state government wants to release prematurely then the restriction of 14 years criteria will apply see these conditions actually provide a loophole for the state government that is since governor can act on the aid and advice of the state government the state government can advise the governor to exercise his or her powers under article 161 in the case of premature release of prisoners and doing so will also be legally right and no restrictions of section 433 a of the code of criminal procedure will be applicable here so it is based on this loophole only a party in the state of Tamil Nadu has asked the Tamil Nadu government to recommend to the governor for releasing the convicts of Rajiv Gandhi assassination so with this we have come to the end of this article discussion with these details in mind now let us move on to the next part of our news discussion now look at this news article see according to this article Rajasthan has sought compensation for the farmers affected by excessive rain and they've asked compensation under Pradhan Mandri Fasal Bhima Yojana so in this context we are going to discuss about this said Pradhan Mandri Fasal Bhima Yojana so Pradhan Mandri Fasal Bhima Yojana is a flagship crop insurance scheme that was launched in 2016 this scheme was conceived as a milestone initiative in order to provide a comprehensive risk solution at the lowest uniform premium across the country for farmers see previously there were two insurance schemes and they were the national agricultural insurance scheme and the modified national agricultural insurance scheme now this Pradhan Mandri Fasal Bhima Yojana merged both these schemes and this particular scheme is being implemented under the overall guidance and control of the department of agriculture cooperation and farmers welfare under the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare note that this Pradhan Mandri Fasal Bhima Yojana is a centrally sponsored scheme and it aims to reduce the premium burden on farmers and it also attempts to ensure early settlement of crop assurance claim for the full insured sum now on talking about its objectives see the schemes objectives include providing insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers stabilizing their income and also it aims to encourage them to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices moving on to the crops covered under the scheme see just to be noted that food crops oil seeds and annual commercial or agricultural crops are covered under the scheme so when i say food crops i mean cereals millets and pulses now in addition to this perennial agricultural crops for which standard methodology for yield estimation is available are also covered under this scheme now let us discuss the types of risks covered under the scheme see the scheme covers failure of standing crops due to non-preventable risks like that of natural disasters pests and diseases and the scheme also covers losses because of prevented sowing due to adverse weather conditions and the scheme also covers post harvest losses due to specific perils like that of cyclones and unseasonal rains but however there are some exclusions under the scheme see losses due to war nuclear risks malicious damage and preventable risks are not covered under this particular scheme so having done with the crops and the risks covered under the scheme now let us move on to discuss the premium rates of the scheme see there will be a uniform premium of only 2 percent to be paid by farmers for all cariff crops and and 1.5 percent for all rabi crops and in case of annual commercial and multicultural crops the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5 percent and for perennial horticultural crops also it is 5 percent note that this scheme applies latest technology in its implementation and it uses a crop insurance app which provides for easy enrollment of farmers further this app also facilitates easier reporting of crop loss within 72 hours of occurrence of any event and the scheme also uses latest technological tools like that of satellite imagery remote sensing technology drones then artificial intelligence and also mission learning in order to assess the crop losses so these are some of the important takeaway points that you need to remember whenever you learn about the first cell Bhima Yojana so with these prelims related facts in our mind now let us move on to the next news discussion now our next news discussion is going to be based on this editorial article see we all know that south asia is undergoing digital transformation so in this discussion we will talk about the issues and the way forward of south asian digital transformation so now let us move into discuss the important points mentioned in this editorial article the syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference see the COVID-19 pandemic has forced south asia to take a quantum leap in digitalization and remote work and online education have further propelled an unprecedented spike in the internet penetration and even smaller nations such as napal are recording almost 11 percent increase in broadband internet users and also the COVID-19 pandemic has fastened the digitization of health care services and as we witnessed at percent the digitized health care services are in fact providing better solutions to public health crisis now for example take India the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the launch of the national digital health mission and this national digital health mission announces the accessibility and also the efficiency of health care services by creating a unique health id for every citizen and also the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the launch of this particular national digital health mission and as we all witness the pandemic has induced the suspension of traditional bricks and mortar businesses and it has forced the south asia to embrace e-commerce and it has also boosted the digital payment systems for instance Bangladesh alone has witnessed an increase of 70 to 80 percent in online sales in the year 2020 and in 2020 alone Bangladesh has generated around 708.46 million dollars in revenues due to this e-commerce but in spite of such developments there are some issues surrounding digitalization which needs to be addressed see as one of the world's poorest regions a wide digital divide persist in access and affordability between and within the countries of south asia now for example take india itself despite having the world's second largest online market around 50 percentage of indian population are without internet and this ranges to 59 percent in the case of Bangladesh and 65 percent in the case of Pakistan likewise many of our monetary and health assistance schemes are distributed online but because of this digital divide around 51 percent of the south asian women are excluded from these monetary and health assistance schemes and the sad truth is that even children are becoming victims to this digital divide and this is evident with the fact that around 88 percent of the children of south asia lack access to internet powered home schooling due to the pandemic and this disruption has got the potential to permanently put these children out of school and it could also place girls at a risk of early marriage and it can also push poor children into child labour costing economies billions of dollars in future earnings next businesses too have paid a heavy price for the gap in digital solutions see many south asian firms failed to embrace e-commerce or other cloud-based technologies and as a result of this failure to recognize these firms couldn't survive the financial chaos of the novel corona virus pandemic and the south asian region recorded a 64 percent decline in sales due to this pandemic and the main victims were small and women led firms and not only this the digital divide has transformed work life also and this transformation has increased the acute skills gap among the youth which has further aggravated the issue of unemployment know that digital transformation is a global imperative and the adoption of advanced technology such as cloud computing artificial intelligence the internet of things big data etc are some of the key components to success in this regard see from banking to manufacturing and retail the role of digital technology is too important to be overlooked so countries should embrace the digital revolution to in order to drive their development agenda and when you take countries like Singapore Japan China and South Korea they have successfully adopted digital transformation and and in fact they are at the forefront of asian digitalization see the increased smartphone and the digital penetration coupled with the availability of trusted digital payment platforms have propelled china's e-commerce industry and at present china's e-commerce industry is set to reach three trillion dollars in the year 2024 so we should also adopt such digital transformation and we are already doing that see south asia has already made some significant strides in the adoption of digital technologies for example the digital Bangladesh vision of 2021 it aims at transforming Bangladesh into a prosperous digital society and likewise India's biometric identification systems intend to improve the efficiency of welfare programs through digital innovation but however we have a long way to go so now comes the question of why should we adopt digital transformation now see the main reason for this is that e-commerce has got the potential to drive the post pandemic growth in south asia and it can provide new business opportunities and also access to larger markets see in india e-commerce could create a million jobs by the year 2030 and it could be worth 200 billion dollars by 2026 and also the fintech or the financial technology could drive significant growth and reduce poverty by building financial inclusion for example take pakistan pakistan's digital financial sector could boost the gdp by seven percent if faster payment gateway lower cost and fast track licensing are implemented in the country so therefore a timely inclusive as well as a sustainable digital transformation not only bolsters productivity and growth but they also serve as a solution for some of the region's socioeconomic divides but in order to reap the dividends of digital transformation south asia needs to address its legal regulatory and policy gaps and it should boost its digital skills and it also needs a robust digital infrastructure and huge financial investments in order to achieve the needful now take india india alone needs an annual investment of 35 billion dollars in order to reap the dividends of digital transformation and we also have a lot of regulatory roadblocks so we have to address these regulatory roadblocks as well and in addition to that we should also address issues like customer protection data privacy as well as digital and market access regulation in order to fully reap the benefits of digital transformation and in addition to all these we should also promote universal digital literacy and also governments and businesses needs to come together in order to revamp the education system to meet the demand for digital skills and online platforms and also the south asian countries can emulate the european union's digital single market proposal since this proposal will address many digital transformation issues like that of regulatory barriers on currency flows and also the transport related constraints for cross-border e-commerce activities etc so therefore south asia can try to emulate european union's digital single market proposal see in south asia only a third of the inter-regional trade potential has been exploited so far and because of this we are actually losing out on 23 billion dollars in revenue so this should also be corrected see the most important measure that needs to be taken in this regard is that we should join hands see during the pandemic south asian nations they successfully joined hands to collectively battle the COVID-19 crisis and they also contributed to emergency funds exchanged data and information on health surveillance and they also shared the research findings and they even developed an online learning platform for health workers so on that line if these nations can emulate the same partnership in the digital world then it is sure that we can successfully foster a digital revolution and it is also plausible but doing that needs vision wisdom and commitment at the highest level of the region's political leadership see the COVID-19 pandemic has made old ways of operating redundant and it has also affected our growth so this proves a need for us to have a coordinated collaboration at all levels and in order to push south asia out of this stagnancy and only such an effort will push us towards a digital future of shared prosperity and also only a right combination of regulatory and physical infrastructure skill sets and regional cooperation can lead towards a digital utopia so to conclude a shared digital vision could place the region on the right track towards the fourth industrial revolution and with that we are coming to the end of this editorial discussion now let us move on to see what the next news article has got to tell us now let us take up this news article for our discussion the article reports about the 150th year celebrations of abanindranath tagore and as per the news article the celebrations is set to happen in victoria memorial hall at kulkata so in this light we are going to see some important details about abanindranath tagore see before knowing about abanindranath tagore it is really important to know about rajaravi varma as well see every one of us would have come across this picture now these were the paintings done by rajaravi varma now he was popular because through his painting he changed the popular notion that paintings can be afforded only by the elite groups and he broke this stereotyping by producing the color prints of religious paintings on a mass scale and he sold them for a cheaper price that is at a price which is affordable even for ordinary people see towards the end of the 19th century a stronger connection was established between art and nationalism and during this time many painters they tried to develop a style that could be considered both modern as well as indian and the first among them was rajaravi varma see this person rajaravi varma belonged to the family of the maharajas of trawankorin kerala and he mastered the western art of oil painting and he followed a realistic style but he painted themes from indian mythology and as we can see his paintings were a blend of both the western and the indian style see in the 1880s many rejected his heart by saying that it was imitative and westernized and they felt that a genuine indian style of painting had to draw inspiration from the non-western art traditions and they also felt that they should capture the spiritual essence of the heist and since this person could not meet with such demands he was forced to leave the elite group now you may have a question in your mind on how is this rajaravi varma related to the protagonist of today that is abanindranath tagore see abanindranath tagore is the nephew of the poet rabindranath tagore and like rajaravi varma he also tried to break all the constraints and he desired to create an indian style in painting this is because he believed that the western art was materialistic in character and also because he wanted india to return to its own traditions to recover spiritual values and unlike ravi varma who was forced to leave the elite group since his work weren't as expected abanindranath tagore was successful in contributing to this regard so now let us see some important facts about him see he was the principal artist and the creator of the journal indian society of oriental art also he was the first major supporter of swadeshi values in indian art which best manifested in the creation of the bangal school of art see this school is remarkable for setting the stage for the development of modern indian painting and apart from this he was also a noted writer particularly for children and it is said that his unique interpretation of swadeshi themes created a new awakening and they heralded a revival of indian art so in order to counter the influence of western models of art in art schools under the british raj he modernized mogul and rajput styles remember he is the first major exponent of the artistic form that sought to modernize the mogul and the rajput styles and this was done in order to counter the influence of western models of art under the colonial regime and apart from them they even draw inspiration from the ajanta caves see note that tagore's work was so successful that it was eventually accepted and promoted as a national indian style within british art institutions and apart from this aban indonath has also painted the forest coming of the night mountain traveler queen of the forest and a series of 45 paintings based on the arabian knights so these are some of the takeaway points from this particular news article now having done with the news articles now let us move on to the next segment of the hindu news analysis that is the prelims practice question discussion now look at this question about the pardoning powers of the governor the question is according to the constitution governor has which of the following judicial powers statement one remission of punishment statement two commutation of sentence statement three pardoning death sentence see in case of the president the power to pardon is also applicable in all cases where punishment is death penalty or death sentence but this is not the case with the governor that is a governor cannot exercise these powers for a death sentence or we can say that the governor cannot pardon a death sentence now here you need to remember that even if a state law prescribes for death sentence then also the power to grant pardon lies with the president only and not with the governor but however the governor can suspend remit or commuter death sentence so since statement three is incorrect in this context the correct answer here is option c that is one and two only now look at this question consider the following statements regarding the tree cities of the world program statement one it is an initiative of the united nations environment program to recognize cities maintaining their urban forest and trees statement two says that at present deradun is the only city in india to be recognized as a tree city of the world so we need to find the correct statement see from our discussion itself we can find that both the statements that are given here are incorrect because as i said earlier tree city of the world recognition is given by the arbor day foundation and food and agriculture organization of the united nations and not of the united nations environment program so that makes statement one to be incorrect now coming to the next statement see as we saw in our discussion hyderabad is the only city in india to be recognized as a tree city of the world so therefore the correct answer here is option d that is neither one nor two because both the statements given here are not correct look at this question consider the following pairs pair one is bharat mala and abhanindranath tagore and pair two is haripura posters and nandalal boos and pair three is jatayu vada and ravi varma see the answer for this question is option d that is one two and three see in this question if we know that pair one and pair three are correct then we can directly arrive at the answer by elimination method now i'll give you a brief description on the three paintings that is mentioned here see this painting is the bharat mala painting that was done by abhanindranath tagore see this work was painted during the swadeshi movement the moment began has a response to the partition of bengal in 1905 and have a look at this picture these are called as the haripura posters and it was painted by the nandalal boos see nandalal boos is a student of abhanindranath tagore and mahatma gandhi invited him to paint panels that were put on display at the congress session at haripura in the year 1937 so famously called the haripura posters these posters depicted ordinary rural folks were busy in various activities like that of a musician drumming a farmer tilling a webbing churning milk and so on and this particular poster is called the jatayu vada which was painted by ravi varma and this is a scene from ramayana and this painting depicts the scene when ravana abducted seetha during which the jadayu that is the eagle came to rescue but ravana killed jadayu and he took away seetha so therefore the right answer here is option d now coming to this question with reference to the pradhan mantri fasal bima yojana consider the following statements statement one pradhan mandri fasal bima yojana covers only food crops and statement two the crop losses due to war and nuclear risks are covered under pradhan mandri fasal bima yojana so we need to find the correct answer see from our discussion itself we can find that statement one is wrong because as we saw in addition to food crops the scheme also covers oil seeds and annual commercial or horticultural crops so this makes statement one to be incorrect now coming to statement two see this statement is also incorrect because the crop losses due to war and nuclear risks are not covered under this particular scheme and since both the statements given here are incorrect the right answer here is option d that is neither one nor two the list of mains practice question is displayed below so interested aspirants can write your answers and post them in the comment section below so with this we have come to the end of today's inter-news analysis and if you like the video then don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to shankar ias academy youtube channel for more updates regarding qpsc civil services preparation